Government culls chickens after bird flu spread

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

The Banda Aceh government has culled 109 chickens and ducks believed to be infected with bird flu, a senior government official says.

Banda Aceh Husbandry Office head Syamsuddin Ali said the birds were slaughtered on Friday after a laboratory test showed several chickens in Lamdom had bird flu.

Poultry farmers were initially resistant to the cull but agreed to their birds being destroyed after government officials stressed the gravity of the situation, he said.

The carcasses of the birds were put in a large hole and burned, he said.

Besides the cull, the husbandry office is also planning to spray disinfectant at poultry farms in Lamdom.

Lamdom is a subdistrict near the border of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar regency.

The subdistrict has become the center of media attention since the sudden deaths of hundreds of chicken in the area a few weeks ago. Samples from the chicken were sent to a veterinary laboratory in Medan, which reported a few days ago the birds had contracted the virus.

Fifty of the 270 families in the subdistrict raise chickens, with some owning large chicken farms.

The local administration is planning to compensate farmers whose chicken were culled with Rp 12,500 (US$1.25) per chicken. "Despite the outbreak, we are calling on people to stay calm," said administration secretary Thantawi Yahya.

As the bird flu story hit newsstands on Friday, chicken sales dropped by 50 percent in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe.

"We expect the government to announce Lhokseumawe is free from bird flu virus," said a chicken trader, Yus.

Earlier, a senior central government official claimed the bird flu virus spread into Banda Aceh when relief workers inadvertently took sick birds there.

The bird flu cases in the tsunami-ravaged area have increased the hardships of the people, but the government said it would do its best to contain the outbreak.

Aceh's coastal areas, including Banda Aceh, were destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed some 130,000 people in Aceh and left 500,000 others homeless.

Bird flu has killed seven people nationwide.